As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more information handling systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
A thin client, or as it is sometimes referred to a lean client or a slim client, is an information handling system or an executable software program running on an information handling system. A thin client generally relies on another information handling system, such as a server, to fulfill at least some of the requested computational roles. For example, a user can access applications or other computational support services from a server by logging into the server from a thin client, for example, a terminal device. Multiple users may log into the same server from multiple terminal devices and may simultaneously request services from the server.
For some legacy devices, the serial and parallel ports are deprecated and may not be available to more modern information handling systems. For example, in modern information handling systems the common hardware interface may be a Universal Serial Bus (USB). To support the deprecated ports of the legacy information handling systems, some vendors implement converters that create appropriate port names (or symbolic links) to permit modern applications to access more recent devices, for example, devices that use only USB as an interface. In this manner, legacy devices may be used with modern information handling systems. For example, legacy barcode scanners, credit card swiping machines, credit card skimmers and other legacy devices known to one of ordinary skill in the art may be accessed by modern information handling systems.
However, one difficulty with implementing converters is the limitation on the number of devices that may be accessed. Because each user is assigned a different port for each accessed device, the number of devices the user is attempting to access may exceed the number recognizable by legacy information handling systems. For example, in a multi-user environment with USB redirection/virtualization, when several users connect and redirect USB serial/parallel port devices, the port name assignments may easily exceed the maximum recognizable number of ports (for example, COM 8 or LPT 8) leaving the user unable to access the desired devices.